It's amazing how much we see people on mobile phones nowadays, almost everyone you meet walking down the street has one glued to their ear. The most recent phones not only allow you to talk to people, but also to browse the internet, listen to music, and even find your way around with satellite navigation.
These little devices have transformed the way we relate to one another. We’re expected to always be available to others. Even in countries living under oppressive regimes, the evil deeds of Governments are soon shared across the world via video-phones and the world-wide-web.
One form of communication that is new to me has been Twitter – where people can share what’s on their mind in short messages of up to 140 characters. I have to say that it doesn’t appeal to me – maybe it's because I cannot sum up my thoughts within such a short space.
Most of these messages, or Tweets, are just idle thoughts, but some are more reflective, such as “What does Easter mean to you?” Tweeters and Facebook members have been sharing their feelings about Easter by answering this question on a new Lent twitter feed.
Looking at these, my favourite tweet was: “Looked like a disaster. Hopes gone, dreadful defeat. But it was the watershed of history, amazing victory, death was beaten.”
Of course, this kind of short, concise kind of writing is nothing new. The gospels written 2000 years ago were a real breakthrough at the time. They were the first real books, in an era of lengthy and bulky scrolls, these short writings about the life of Jesus were much more compact and easier to transport.
The gospels are like biographies, and yet different; they miss out much of what we look for a good read. For example, we don’t know about Jesus’ appearance, how he dressed, or what his hobbies are.
Instead, these ancient ‘tweets’ focus on different priorities – with over a third of each book dealing with Jesus’ arrest, trial, death and resurrection. Their writers are gripped with the drama of an amazing good man, strung up on a false charge, and put to death. When he appeared alive to his friends, he changed their world, and he still does today. Now that’s a story worth passing on.
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